Magda + Eric | Rustic, vintage-chic, relaxed outdoor Jewish wedding with Parisian influences at Bianca, Moshav Ginaton, Israel

I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re going to fall in love with this afternoon’s wedding which is a tale of love crossing continents, culminating in a wedding that combines the al fresco spirit of Israel with some serious Parisian designer chic.

There’s lots to love about this W-day, first off Magda’s bridal style is OFF THE WALL. I adore her wedding dress (actually it’s a two piece skirt and top by French designer, Delphine Manivet) that harks back to a bygone era with its high neckline, 3/4 length sleeves and lashings of feminine lace.

I also love the fact that Magda was inspired by the wedding scene from ‘Fiddler on the roof’. It’s one of my all-time favourite films which I guess doesn’t come as any surprise! Magda and Eric chose the famous Sunrise, Sunset track to be played during their wedding ceremony, as well as choosing their own personal ‘relationship song’ to be played when Magda circled Eric seven times (read more about this Jewish wedding tradition here).

Another moving, but very fitting ceremony detail, was the placing of a picture of Eric’s mother on a table under the chuppah during the ceremony. She sadly passed away a few months before the big day, and it was her dream that Magda and Eric would get married in Israel.

The details are so beautiful in this wedding – I particularly love the delicate flowers and decor by wedding designer (and STG regular), Kim Bulow. So very lovely.

Here is Magda & Eric’s story. Words by Magda, photography by Supanit Riansrivilai and a beautiful wedding film by Alexander Perel at the end. Enjoy!

How we met

Magda, the Bride: Eric and I met in Paris where he was living, and  I was on holiday visiting a friend. At the time I was living and studying in New York City (I’m originally from Warsaw, Poland) and we met up for every one of the 10 days that I was holidaying in Paris!

We kept in touch once I returned to New York and after a couple of months, I decided to close the door on my past and move back to Europe, to settle down in Paris.

We started dating, then we moved in together, then we got a pug named Eliot(!), and after 3 and a half years, in July 2014, we tied the knot.

An Intimate Wedding In Israel Versus a Chic Affair in Paris

We chose to get married in Israel as we didn’t want to have a huge Parisian-style wedding. We wanted something more casual, rustic, vintage, with a countryside feel and only with those closest to our hearts in attendance which worked out at around 90 guests (that’s very small by Israeli standards!)

In Paris it’s more common to have the ceremony in a synagogue and we wanted something more relaxed, intimate and outdoorsy, so an Israeli wedding suited us perfectly.

We found our perfect venue to be Bianca which is an event space in a lovely garden in a little town near Lod, 15 kilometres southeast of Tel Aviv.

FINDING OUR WEDDING PLANNER WITH GOOGLE

I found our wedding planner, Kim Bulow, via good old-fashioned Google. I simply searched for “english speaking wedding designer in Israel”. Kim Bulow Production was on the first page that I looked at and after seeing her portfolio and design, I knew she was the right person for us.

A ‘RUSTIC-CHIC’ THEME

I like to think that our wedding was a kind of ‘rustic-chic’. Our main colours were ivory, peach, and beige – natural colours with wooden accents and lots of vintage accessories as well as crystal glasses and a buffet decorated with the most beautiful old fashioned lace.

HAND-CRAFTED INVITATIONS

Our invitations were printed onto textured paper with a Baby’s Breath flower design, with craft paper envelopes, and sealed with an old fashioned ink stamp with our names and the date of the wedding. We received many compliments about the style of our invitations.

A TWO-PIECE DRESS, BOUGHT FROM ONE OF MY FAVOURITE DESIGNERS  IN PARIS

For many years I’ve known that if I was every going to get married, I would wear one of Delphine Manivet’s designs. She’s a Parisian designer and I just love her style. It’s very subtle, being très sophisticated, evocative of the past, and most definitely not a princess style wedding gown!

I picked my favourite dress solely from the pictures I found on the internet and when I had my first appointment at the boutique, after completing all the questions about my style, it turned out that this particular dress was among others that I might like. I tried on just three dresses and it was an easy choice for me. It’s actually a lace top and a skirt, two separates.

ACCESSORIES

Less is more is what I say! I don’t like it when there’s too much happening so I only wore a little gold bracelet and a flower head piece that I purchased together with my wedding gown in Delphine Manivet’s boutique

CHOOSING BETWEEN 3 PAIRS OF SHOES…

Shoes are definitely my thing! Of course I couldn’t decide until the last minute, so I bought three pairs! Well, actually I bought two and the third one was a gift from my mum. The two I bought were some gorgeous flat golden sandals by Casadei and a pair of ivory leather sandals by Givenchy as I couldn’t decide whether gold or ivory would look better with my dress. In the end I wore the ones my mum gave me (very simple nude high heels by Ballin) for the ceremony, as they were so comfy, and then for the reception, I changed to Givenchy.

SMOKY EYES AND HAIR INSPIRED BY THE 19th CENTURY

Normally I don’t wear much make up, so I decided to go for the same natural look on my wedding day. I’m not used to lipsticks and heavy make up but I really wanted something nice for my eyes, smoky eyes ideally!

I met Dikla Sharabi, my make up artist, only a few days before my wedding, and she helped me decide on my final look. She said my hazel eyes would go nicely with a peach shadow (which was also a theme colour of the wedding, by coincidence) and she used a very delicate pink lipstick to make the whole make up look as natural as possible.

My hair was inspired by the 19th century which is my favourite era – I always feel like I’ve lived in the times of Chopin, George Sand and Baudelaire…

THE HANDSOME GROOM
Eric’s style was also a little bit ‘vintage’. We went shopping for his outfit together and made the decision quite fast. We knew that the most important element for him were his shoes(!), so he picked his shoes by himself, then we sourced the rest together.

His shoes were by Paul Smith, and they were brown with some cool green accents. Then we found a stunning waistcoat and bow tie, a Lanvin shirt (checkered grey-white) and a charcoal slim fit suit by De Fursac with Cerruti fabric (for his waistcoat and trousers).

THE CEREMONY

Eric’s mother sadly passed away a few months before our wedding and it was her dream that we would get married in Israel, so we brought her picture with us and put it on a table under the chuppah with us during the ceremony. We could feel her presence the whole evening… and we had a surprise song for both mothers. For my mum who was with us on that special day and for Eric’s mother even if she was there only in spirit. We had the musicans play a Yiddish song about mothers called Mamele.

A SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE CHUPPAH DESIGN

My dream was to have a chuppah filled with flowers and lots of candles surrounding it, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible. Instead we had a very stylish and minimalistic design with white fabric and just a few flowers. It was beautiful, very delicate.

MOVING MUSIC FOR THE CEREMONY

I knew for a long time that I wanted my wedding to look like from the scene from ‘Fiddler on the roof’ – the wedding scene, where they sing “Sunrise, Sunset”. And because I studied music, I had an idea in mind of this song arranged for violin or a trio. The musicans did a great job, and we had a slow version of Sunrise Sunset played on strings when my mum and Eric’s sister walked me down the aisle to the chuppah, and when my Dad and Eric’s Dad walked Eric under the chuppah.

It was very touching and some of the guests started crying already… Then when I circled Eric seven times, we had the song only for us, as it’s a very special moment when I walk around Eric building a wall to protect our marriage. We decided to have “our” song played and it was an instrumental version of Ani ve’ata by Arik Einstein. This is our relationship song…

A million thank you’s go to our wonderful wedding designer Kim Bulow. She took care of every single detail and thanks to her our ceremony was the ceremony of our dreams.

NATURAL AND DELICATE FLOWERS

Kim also knew exactly what was required in terms of flowers after only a short chat. I wanted everything natural, delicate and in good taste. As I said before: less is more! I had a charming natural bouquet that looked as if someone had picked the flowers from a meadow on a lovely summer’s day.

OUR PHOTOGRAPHER FLEW IN ALL THE WAY FROM THAILAND

I am a photographer myself – it’s what I do for living and it’s what I studied too. So that being said, I am surrounded by photographers who are also my friends, and so for my special day I called upon my brilliant artistic friend who came to Israel especially for us, from Bangkok: Supanit Riansrivilai. She’s so very talented and even before knowing my now-husband, I knew that if I ever get married, she would be the one taking the photographs!

I’m very thankful and happy that she made it to Israel for a couple of days even though she’s a very busy photographer at home in Thailand.

OUR AMAZING VIDEOGRAPHER

Alexander Perel amazed me with the work that I saw on his website. I knew I wanted to get in touch with him as there’s something very special about his films. He catches everything in a very sublime way – I absolutely love it. (You can see the film he made of Magda & Eric’s wedding at the end of the post).

A JAZZ BAND, SPEECHES AND A VERY HEART-FELT, INTIMATE ATMOSPHERE

We wanted our wedding to be more like a cocktail party – a meeting of friends and family. It was a small party of 90 people, but everyone there was invited for a reason. No strangers that you meet for the first time and you can’t remember their names – everybody there was for us, and we were surrounded with so much love and good energy. As I mentioned before, Eric’s mother passed away only a few months before the wedding, so we knew that we won’t have any dancing or special entertainment. we simply had a jazz band playing for us, we had lovely speeches made by those close to our heart and it was just a wonderful evening.

FAVOURS

We bought beige suede kippot for the men, that were engraved inside with our names, wedding date and location. The women received lovely hand fans in white.

ADVICE TO OTHER BRIDES

My top tip would be don’t think about pleasing everybody because that’s simply not possible. You have to remember that it’s only possible to have great memories if it’s exactly the way you want it. We received many compliments from our guests, telling us that our wedding wasn’t like any others, that it was small and very intimate and in a lovely garden, that it was very romantic and sophisticated. People loved it and it put a big smile on our face to know that it will be remembered.

MAGDA + ERIC’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Venue – Bianca, Moshav Ginaton, Israel
Wedding planner + design – Kim Bulow
Photography – Supanit Riansrivilai
Videography – Alexander Perel 
Bride’s dress – Delphine Manivet
Bride’s shoes – Givenchy and Ballin
Groom’s suit – De Fursac
Groom’s shirt – Lanvin
Groom’s shoes – Paul Smith
Jewellery + wedding bands – Van Cleef & Arpels
Hair + makeup – Dikla Sharabi
Ketubah –ketubah.com